Colorado slaying suspect's ties to other deaths explored

Saturday

Mar 23, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 23, 2013 at 3:11 PM

DENVER - As investigators unravel the tangled and violent path of a Colorado parolee tied to the killing of the state's prisons chief, they also are examining whether he had connections to two other violent deaths, including the January killing of a Texas prosecutor.

DENVER — As investigators unravel the tangled and violent path of a Colorado parolee tied to the killing of the state’s prisons chief, they also are examining whether he had connections to two other violent deaths, including the January killing of a Texas prosecutor.

Officials said yesterday that the suspect, Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, had died after being wounded in a shootout and high-speed chase with Texas police and deputy sheriffs about 65 miles northwest of Dallas.

Officials said Ebel had been driving a black Cadillac with Colorado license plates, a car that matched descriptions of a vehicle spotted near the home of Colorado’s chief of corrections, Tom Clements. Clements was killed Tuesday night as he answered the door to his home.

Officials said they were performing ballistics tests and looking for other physical evidence. They said they had not established a definitive connection between Ebel and the killing of Clements.

However, shell casings recovered from Ebel’s car are the same make and caliber as those found at Clements’ home after he was killed, according to legal papers. Denver authorities also said they found a Domino’s pizza bag and a jacket or shirt in the trunk of Ebel’s car — a link to another slaying, that of pizza deliveryman Nathan Leon, whose body was found Sunday.

Yesterday, sheriff’s officers in Kaufman County, Texas, said they were exploring any connection between Clements’ death and the Jan. 31 killing of Mark E. Hasse, an assistant district attorney.

In other developments yesterday:

• Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said he’s a close friend of Ebel’s father. The Denver Post reported that Hickenlooper said he and attorney Jack Ebel, father of Evan Spencer Ebel, worked for the same oil company when Hickenlooper was a geologist.